Security systems are often connected to central monitoring station using cellular radio through a cellular provider. Cellular radio provides certain benefits over a landline telephone connection between the security system and central monitoring station, for example while landlines can be interrupted or disabled, cellular radio connections are significantly more difficult to defeat.
At the time of installation, the cellular radio of the security system must be activated with the cellular provider and registered with the security provider, such as AlarmNet/Honeywell in order for the security system to be able to communicate with the central monitoring station. Typically, this requires that a security technician contact the cellular provider by telephone and provide the necessary information to the cellular provider. However, this process can be time consuming and may lead to errors due to misunderstood information such as security system identification number, etc.
The security provider, as used with respect to the present invention, is a processing station that acts as an intermediary between the cellular radio of the security system and the central monitoring station, receiving transmissions sent by the cellular radio via the cellular provider and forward the message contained within the transmission to the central monitoring station. AlarmNet is one such intermediary, however other systems that perform a similar function are envisioned as providing the role of security provider as defined in the present invention. In addition, the processing station need not be remote from the cellular provider as the cellular provider can be adapted to act as the processing station.